Manouvering in the wind or flow

[Timx]

My boat is two and a half foot in the water at the back and one and a half foot at the  bow.  In windy weather, or turning into a flow, it performs as you would expect , like a twig floating on water.

This is my first boat and love it, had it four years, but the draught at the bow is a problem. I have learnt different ways to counteract it mostly in marinas etc, but for example the flow off the great Ouse  on to Middle levels , took me three goes last time , I have done it twice before in a hire boat, and with a bit of oomph at right time, wasn't a problem. Every time  I turn against the tide it turned me like a match, I only just made it on third attempt, with loads of brakes after getting to the slack water.. The lockie was surprised I never hit the sand bank on left of lock, but being so high draughted , ( I had seen a boat banked there b4) I thought I would be OK , as I was. 

My question is , is 18'' draught  unusual, my  bow does seem high to other boats.

Is it a big job to adjust the bow to lower in the water. ?

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Timx
Spellin

[WotEver]

What make of boat? Who built the hull?

[Timx]

It's an Aqualine

I see some boats reverse, and I know at that speed, I would spin, but I can also see there bow is a lot deeper than mine.

[Naughty Cal]

I don't reckon we even have 18" at the bow when moored up and certainly a lot less when underway!

 

You just get used to how your boat handles in certain conditions. The only way to get used too it is plenty of practice. 

 

No two boats will sit in the water the same or handle the same.

[TheBiscuits]

12 hours ago, Timx said:

Is it a big job to adjust the bow to lower in the water. ?

 

Fill the water tank! 

 

Seriously, all you need to do is move some ballast from the stern to the bow - doing it this way makes twice the difference to the trim compared to simply adding more ballast at the bow.

 

How much you can get away with depends on heights of decks and drain holes above the waterline, and you don't want to raise the uxter plate (the flat bit directly above the propeller) out of the water.

 

If the boat is trimmed more "nose down" it will make quite a difference to handling it, especially when you can't just compensate with more revs like on a high-performance cruiser.  My boat behaves very differently with a nearly empty water tank than with a full one, and knowing the effect this has means I can choose how agile I want it to be depending on the canal or river I'm on.

 

You can trivially experiment with this by putting a couple of big buckets/barrels in the welldeck and filling them with canal water to see what trim angle you want to try and achieve.

[Timx]

Yeah, thanks, I will get a load of coal this year, and keep it more forward, but I known the answer is as you have suggested, but don't think that's practable without ripping up floor boards, so thank you for your answer, weird why they make them that way. .?what is a average draught of a boat that handles better. .? And what do most builders plan on  draught of bow in water ?

[Timx]

Filling the water tank and having partner I think helped me get out of a windy marina this morning, but my previous experience of hiring many narrow boats, makes me feel the bow is a lot lighter.But probably too late now to sort  it. 

[TheBiscuits]

Don't forget the mobile ballast can be possessions not just concrete slabs.

 

Moving a couple of big toolboxes forward made a lot of difference to my boat.  Bags of coal forward, anchor and chain forward, heaviest things you own not stuffed under the bed...

 

If you have an open plan saloon, consider adding something like a chest of drawers as far forward as you can. If you have lockers under seating, put heavy stuff in them.  It's all weight in the right place!

[Keeping Up]

I love the way our boat handles, being only a couple of inches shallower at the bow than at the stern; so much better than our previous boat which was high at the bow. So yes, find a way to get more weight at the bow - preferably, as others say, by transferring it from the stern.

 

Many many years ago I thought I knew how to handle a boat. Then I took a well-loaded coal boat down the Oxford Canal, selling coal as I went, getting used to the gradual transition from being actually deeper at the bow when loaded to having the bows right out of the water when we were empty. It was on that trip, especially around the bends of the South Oxford, that I actually learned the difference between just steering and actually handling a boat.

[TheBiscuits]

4 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

getting used to the gradual transition from being actually deeper at the bow when loaded to having the bows right out of the water when we were empty.

 

Try towing a butty while you do it

 

[Keeping Up]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

Try towing a butty while you do it

 

Definitely! But I do love a challenge. The greatest learning point I ever had from towing a butty, was that you can negotiate a sharp turn by engaging reverse at the right moment and letting the butty run up your stern to push it around facing you the right way. Of course persuading the butty to then follow you can be a bit more difficult unless there is someone on the butty steering it.

[ditchcrawler]

45 minutes ago, Timx said:

Filling the water tank and having partner I think helped me get out of a windy marina this morning, but my previous experience of hiring many narrow boats, makes me feel the bow is a lot lighter.But probably too late now to sort  it. 

I trimmed my boat as level as I could get it, probably 2" off

[DandV]

Our boat handled best with a full water tank and the fuel tank less then half full. The windage and relative location of the for'ad end of the deck house and cratch  to the cruiser stern resulted in a considerable turning moment in windy conditions. Once the bow started sailing down wind any elegance in manoeuvring blew away.

[Tacet]

All good advice, i am sure.  But is not OP's particular problem that the bow of the boat getting swept around (and re-straightened) as the vessel turns across the stream?     If so loading the bow won't really help.

 

 

 

 

[Sally Grim]

12 hours ago, Timx said:

(...)    weird why they make them that way. .?   (...)

Perhaps something heavy was added to the stern or removed from the bow, after it was built? That would affect the trim.